What To Do About Your Brain Injured Child – Thursday

This was the day I was looking forward to of the What To Do About Your Brain Injured Child. Yes all the information had been so helpful, but today we were learning about the Intellectual and Physiological programs! I had been able to get my boys reading, but I was never able to take them to the next level. Or so I thought.

Before I get too much into my day, if you are interested in teaching your child to read at an early age, get the book “How to Teach Your Baby to Read”. This book is available at most libraries, however if you can get your own personal copy, I would strongly recommend it. This book is how I was introduced to the Glenn Doman method of parenting. It helped me realize how intelligent kids really are.

Back in 2007 a few months before Wesley’s second birthday I was sitting in an empty dental office bored stiff. Everyone in the office was gone on a business trip to Brandon for a convention. I however had made up an excuse that I could not make it because I did not have child care. I’m sure my parents would have watched Wesley, but I had gone on a business trip that past September, and while I was gone Wes took his first steps. I decided that I did not want to be away that long again. I few months later I got a job at a different office that didn’t require travel. So because I was staying back, I stayed in the office and answered phones or took payments when patients came in to square off their bills. Honestly it was boring as watching paint dry. So I started messing around on google. I’m not sure what search words I used but I’m sure it was something along the lines of “how to raise smart kids” or maybe “how to make your baby a genius”. I don’t know what my 21 year old mind was looking for, but it struck gold.

The book How To Teach You Baby to Read popped up. I snooped around the IHAP website and I was hooked. Immediately I picked up the phone and called the local book store. The guy on the other line snickered when told him the title of the book I was looking for, and we were both surprised when he found the store did have a copy. After work that day I hurried to the store and picked up the book, and well the rest is history….

Flash forward about 9 years later, here I was in the Valentine auditorium learning how to teach my boys to read from the co writer of the book Janet Doman. Honestly watching the videos on Youtube and then being in the room, you can see the presentations are very scripted. However of course they are! Each Instructor needs to make sure they are not missing any information. Here is a clip of the reading program presentation. This is only 2:18 mins, we sat and learned about reading from 9:30am till 3pm.

We spent the day learning about:

The Why and How to teach your child to read.

What a Beginning, Intermediate and Advance Reading Program looks like

Reading Program Vocabulary Suggestions, based on their auditory level

Using a Choice Board

Water and Liquid Balance

Nutrition Program

How to Feed Your Child

How to Create a Healthy Home

The Masking Program

Sensory Stimulation Program (Visual, Auditory, and Tactile)

I had an “Ah-Ha!” moment. That was when I realized that my oldest son Wesley was speed reading. I burst out crying in the middle of the auditorium when I realized this. I thought I had failed him, but I hadn’t. He was speed reading, he just couldn’t explain to me what he was reading, but he understood it. I called him that night and talked to him and he was able to tell me he just looks at a page and scans it, and knows what it says.

That night I sat in my rental car eating my dinner with my mind racing a million miles an hour. I felt like I had all I needed. I wanted to get on a plane and go home to my kids. But we had one more day. As much as I felt I had everything I needed, I was soon going to find out that Friday was also a very important day.

Did you miss how the beginning of my trip to Philadelphia to take the What To Do About Your Brain Injured Child Course went? You can catch up and read about it in the following posts: